1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a multitrack recorder that records a sound signal in a plurality of tracks.
2. Related Art
A hitherto-known multitrack recorder records a sound signal into a plurality of tracks. A multitrack recorder makes it possible to record a rhythm guitar part in a track 1 and a lead guitar part in a track 2 by use of; for instance, an electric guitar and a vocal sound in a track 3 by use of a built—in microphone and mix down them to thereby generate and record a stereo signal.
In such a multitrack recorder, in order to acquire a desired audio signal, editing work for superposing a plurality of audio signals one audio signal on another or splicing the audio signals together is often performed, or the plurality of audio signals are often recorded on one track repeatedly. As a matter of course, audio signals stored on a track are erased or overwritten in the course of such work. Accordingly, an operation cancel (UNDO) function has hitherto been proposed. In the event of operation ending in a failure or recording operation being unsuccessful, the operations are cancelled by the function, thereby recovering the status achieved before performance of the operations.
For instance, 2002-124022-A discloses a technique for storing edited track data as new track data that are independent of raw track data every time audio data stored on a track are edited. U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,936 discloses a technique for establishing an association between a recorded source file (an audio data file stored on a track) and a file name of a source file to be newly recorded, thereby facilitating searching for a target file among a plurality of files being edited. Even if operation ends in a failure or recording operation is unsuccessful, the technique enables easy restoration of desired audio data.
Incidentally, it is desirable that the multitrack recorder be able to record a sound signal in as many tracks as possible. In the meantime, when an attempt is made to make the multitrack recorder compact in consideration of portability, limiting the number of tracks might be unavoidable. Measures that are conceivable in the circumstances are to limit the number of tracks to a certain number; for instance, four and make some of the tracks assignable to either a monaural type or a stereo type rather than fixing the tracks solely to monaural types to enhance user's convenience.
When one track is made switchable between a monaural type and a stereo type, processing of the track, for instance, processing pertaining to playback or recording, is also switched according to the type (the monaural type or the stereo type) of the track. In order to address such a difference in processing, there is desire that consistency should always exist between a type of each track and a type of audio data stored thereon. In order to fulfill such a desire, when audio data are restored by means of the operation cancel (UNDO) function, a type of a track must also be changed according to a type of the audio data. However, an operation cancel function intended for use in a case where one track is switchable between a stereo type and a monaural type has not hitherto been available. Therefore, when the related-art operation cancel function is applied directly to such a case, a problem occurs, such as a loss of consistency between a type of audio data to be stored on each track and a type of the track.